The Cognitivists place their focus on the students and how they gain and organise their knowledge. Students do not merely receive information but actively create a pattern of what it means to them.
Dewey defined learning as 'learning to think' and the process of learning is not just doing something, such as task but reflecting and learning from this. The teacher is the key, because he says the teacher must plan for reflective thinking to take place. Education being firmly linked to social growth was one of Dewey's main claims.
Burner considers the learning process as the acquiring of new information, transforming that learning with regards to existing knowledge and then checking it against the new situation. So, knowledge is a process rather than a product. Models are constructed by the learner which explain the existing but can also predict what might be. Burner sees the teacher's role as one facilitating the student's own discovery -known as 'inquiry training'.
Ausubel sees the key to effective learning as the students relating their new learning to existing cognitive structures. He advocates the use of 'advance organisers' (that is, bridges between what the students know and what they need to know). Such an organiser is a short description of the new material before the lesson so that the students are prepared to accept the new materials.
Cognitive psychologist argue that we are not passive receptors of stimuli when we learn: the mind actively processes the information it receives and converts it into new forms and categories. So how do we apply cognitive theories in the classroom? The following suggestion may assist you;
- Call attention to, take advantage of, the structure of the subject. Stress relationships in wahat you present. Use advantage organisers where appropriate and urge students to seek patterns of their own.
- Take advantage of students wanting to find answers to problems that have personal significance to them, so relating the learning to their own personal situations.
- Arrange the learning so that students discover things for themselves.
- Structure discussion by posing specific question.
adaptation of the article given by my lecturer in 'learning theories' class
